Lawrence Sherman*, Prova Education, New York, United States Mathena Pavan*, National Health Service, London, United Kingdom Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Digital Learning Presentation Type: Oral presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School Room: C-Rotunda Room Date: 2012-09-16 09:45 AM – 10:30 AM Last modified: 2012-09-12

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Social media platforms continue to emerge as incredibly useful tools for medical educationalists in their design, development and implementation of continuing medical education (CME) activities. They serve as platforms for 2.0-like discussions at all time points during the educational process. In the past, a literature review and a discussion with an expert were enough to justify the development of a CME activity. There was very little interactivity with the learners, and even less involvement with patients (who are the ultimate beneficiaries of the CME).
Envisioning two journeys, one of the physician learner and the other of the patient as they navigate the course of a disease and identifying the points at which the two intersect provides us with a diagram of possible educational interventions. The physician learner journey winds through conferences, meetings, and websites. The patient journey goes through a variety of medical offices, hospitals, and healthcare institutions. And social media provides a platform to identify new and innovative intersections of patients and physicians; these enhance traditional methods. Social media allows multiple stakeholders to equally contribute to CME, using different learning styles, with both synchronous and asynchronous interactions.
The use of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media channels by both patients and healthcare professionals have led to the creation of the Society for Participatory Medicine, and the hosting of conferences specifically focused on the use of social media in medicine. It is the evolution of involving social media in CME that will be the focus of this session.
Examples of the use of social media in key aspects of CME will be provided, including:
- Evaluation and measurement of educational needs amongst healthcare professionals
- Assessing the opinions of patients and other stakeholders during the development of CME content
- Increasing awareness of upcoming CME activities and where and how patients can help
- Involvement of additional participants in live activities thorough social media channels
- Continuation of dialogues amongst learners following participation in CME activities and measuring patient-level impact
- Formative and summative evaluation techniques
This interactive session will feature a variety of techniques to address the needs of the participants. It is envisioned that the audience will comprise both healthcare professionals and interested others (including patients) and as such the content will address the needs of both groups.
The session will feature:
- Real-time interactive needs assessment of the participants in the room
- Interactive discussions surrounding current and potential uses of social media in Participatory Medicine
- Provision of “Practice Pearls” for all stakeholders
- Opportunities for real time dialogue with external stakeholders via a live Twitter feed during the session
- Examples of success when using social media within the CME continuum
Participants will leave the session with the ability to apply knowledge learned during the presentation and will be encouraged to continue interaction with the faculty and other participants in follow-up to the session. This will serve as an abstract for Medicine 2.0 in 2013.